I want to help people to connect with each other and with nature around us and within us. We are part of the landscape and even though cities are not ‘natural’, we made them, fed by food grown from the earth.

Making music and listening to nature is one way to connect. 

Today there are many who say “I am not musical”…and yet they love listening to music, song, or the sounds of birds chatting and wind playing in trees.

The Natural Musicians course is to help creativity, imagination, oracy, laughter and connection unfold, reveal, develop, emerge and exclaim in a musical way, inspired by what have most in common, our breath and the world around us.

I am offering the Natural Musicians course online to make it accessible the world over, without having to travel and use up precious fossil fuels to do so.

I have seen how music affects people and place, and can bring joy and connection in ways other activities cannot. This course brings a way of creating and celebrating a special vibration for community and planet, and as a way of sharing our own unique gifts of voice and heartbeat. 

The story of how I came to create the course has roots in both the natural and the musical worlds. Here is some of the story: 

One cold summers day I remember standing in a stone circle in Scotland, with two bits of wire in my hand. I had cut the wire from an old fence to use them as dowsing rods. I was amazed at what had just happened. The Ley of the land had changed and it was music that seemed to have brought about the change. There were now 13 radial Ley lines where that been 5!

Please allow me to explain. You may know this already…Ley Lines seem to be energetic alignments between places, landscape features and man made objects. There are networks of Ley lines across the globe.  They are not usually perceived by the naked eye, but can be felt and ‘dowsed’ with metal or wooden rods. The rods are held loosely in the hand and, in conjunction with the attention of the mind and body of the person holding the rods, the rod may move when that person comes upon or crosses a Ley line. People can also dowse for water… or sometimes lost keys (but that is a story for another time!)

While walking towards the stone circle, up a long stony track, bordered with old windblown beech and thorn trees, I was talking with my friend and musician Mat Clements about Ley Lines and stone rows. I was full of excitement having just finished a book called Songlines, which was about the Aboriginal Australian relationship with the land. I had picked up that some aboriginal people saw it is part of a humans responsibility to help sing the world into existence as they walked Songlines across the land.

I noticed an old fence line, no longer functioning, and had cut two short pieces of the thick wire with my trusty pocket tool, and bent them both into ‘L’ shapes. I wondered if I could ‘pick up’ any Ley or song lines as we walked.

Occasionally the wire rods would move in my hands. There was something there!

With growing anticipation I set out to map the stone circle for whatever it was I was perceiving when we arrived. I found there to be five lines of energy radiating out from the centre, at various angles. They didn’t seem to be pointing or lining up with any landscape feature we could see in particular, though one was heading off, but not directly, to the top of a nearby hill.

Mat and I played some music.  He played berimbau –  a Brazilian stick, gourd, string and stone instrument. I played a didgeridoo. We improvised. In our music we listened for rhythms arising within and between us, as we moved and faced different directions of the compass, all the time with an attitude of gratitude for the land and the people that had made the circle long ago.

When we finished I wondered if there had been any changes to whatever it was I was perceiving with the dowsing rods. 

I set out to map the circle again.

Now there were 13 lines of energy radiating from the centre of the circle, and 2 concentric rings within the circle, and one just beyond the stone! Amazing!

What had happened? 

To this day I don’t actually know. We guessed that perhaps the music had charged up the place, or affected me to become more sensitive with the rods. Maybe the circle had woken up!?

I changed that day. My perception of separateness from the land diminished. Music now had an unseen power. Song and gratitude really does have an affect on the land. 

A woodland with the laughter and chatter of children as well as the song of birds is a more vibrant place than a field of wheat… though that too has its own song.

All the land is vibration and patterns.

Our voices are patterns of vibrations. 

We do affect the world with our voices and song.

And that brings me to the next part of the story, the more musical side, of why I wanted to foster connection in this way.

For more info and to try the free section of the course click here: https://www.natureconnection.co.uk/natural-musicians-intro

You may know me from writing the book, I love my world. You may also know me as the didgeridooman. If you don’t know me at all, here is a brief introduction:

I have been a forest school leader since 2004, but have been teaching didgeridoo in schools since 1998. I also played didgeridoo and percussion in a band called Jabberwocky around the same time.

I would like to have a moment of your time to share with you my thoughts about the benefits of music, making simple instruments, nature connection and belonging…. And a bit about my journey to creating The Natural Musicians Activities – activities which are transforming the way we teach music in primary schools.

Let’s start with the didgeridoo, or yidaki. I love the didgeridoo and how my breath becomes the rhythm, and the rhythms become my breath. I was told by an aboriginal Australian that everything has a spirit to it… whether it is a bug, a tree, a snake, a mountain, a river, a person… even a yidaki or didgeridoo. If you listen to a didge, even a spiral one like this one, there is a sound of a quiet didge in there… like a distant swarm of bees….and when we blow into it, the spirit comes alive!

Playing didge really does help me feel a oneness and a nowness. Like many musicians I often enter a flow state when I play. Flow states are just one of the benefits of making music.

Music has the power to unite people, to help them dream, to move their emotions, minds,  bodies.

As Bono from U2 says… “Music can change the world because music changes people”.

I have also seen how music can change the vibe of a place.

I believe that making music helps us connect with each other, with nature and our own heartsong.  

Everything in the universe is vibration, some of the vibration is visible to us, some not. Through differing wavelengths of energy… we are all connected.

Music can invigorate us to get up and go, and it can help us to relax.

Music can help us be in the moment. As we sing open hearted with a group of people we may harmonise, we are now. As we drum or clap along, we are now. We are one. We are one with each other, our voices, our instruments, the land that supports us and the air we all share.

Listening

Music is not just about making sounds…it’s also about listening.

Listening to vibrations and feelings, not only with the ears, but also with the body and heart.

Being aware of natural sounds helps me extend my mind out into the world… to listen to birdsong and people at work. To listen for the furthest away sounds we join with a bigger self, an listening for the softest sounds  around us can also help us listen to the song within.

While listening to music I tend to tune in on the mood and groove… more than the lyrics. Other people listen more to the lyrics… each word has its own vibration.

We all have our own preferences of listening to and making music.

We tend to listen to different kinds of music when we are in certain moods, or when we want to change our moods.

Making and playing music

We have individual  ways, styles, modes of making music too.

Many of us get put off by the idea that we need to learn to read music before we can play it.

Did we have to learn to read before we could speak or make sounds? No! We simply played around with our vocal chords until we started making sounds that came out as words.

The same goes for making music…. We can play around with making sounds until we make music. Whether we are using musical instruments, our voices… or a stones and a leaf…we can all play at making music indoors or outdoors.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a whole bundle of activities  that help people’s musical self emerge in a way that also connects them with nature? That’s what the Natural Musicians activities are about… but more of that later.

Nature can inspire us to make sounds.

For example; A gasp of fear when seeing a snake; The ooh,  ahh and cute sounds of seeing cuddle of little fluffy kittens, an ewww of disgust; a wow and woah of seeing something spectacular. Also the plop of mimicking the sound of a stone falling, or the snap of a stick breaking.

Belonging

Playing music with people can give us a sense of belonging too. We are seen. We are part of something bigger. Our contribution receives validation.

When we make music with people and with inspiration from nature and the place or landscape around us we enter into a dynamic relationship. There are many layers of connection going on.

As a didge player I often seek out acoustically interesting places to play… bathrooms, caves, stairwells, hollow trees, rocky outcrops.

When I started teaching didgeridoo I had no written music to rely on… (and to this day I don’t actually read music well at all!) I had to come upon a way of teaching rhythms and allow for the creativity of my students to produce their own rhythms and sounds.

I started by using word sounds and syllables… for instance the syllables of the students names to make rhythms and articulate sounds.

I then began to use geometric shapes in the music rooms and halls I was teaching in to help make rhythmical patterns and compositions. A row of four windows, a stack of 6 chairs…each one had a pattern that could be interpreted. Everything is vibration. Everything is sound. How can you give voice to it?

This soon led to looking beyond the walls, helping my students make music based on the patterns and feelings within a landscape or place.

And then we started to use natural and man objects made to help us write musical scores.

Music making in Forest School

When I started to include percussion, music making and singing more songs in my forest school sessions I realised that I could do team-building, nature interpretation, nature connection and so much more through the lens of music.

Natural Musicians activities were born!

Sometimes all we need to get a connection going is a stick to conduct an orchestra!

Another example of the connective journey is making simple instruments from natural objects… just knocking two things together.

When someone goes and looks for two things to beat or brush together to make a sound… they are immediately engaging more of their senses, they are moving in different ways, picking up, engaging, holding, manipulating, listening…experimenting, noticing what other people are doing so they can copy or be unique…

If we were to go and harvest some wood to make a whistle or a scraper, then we have to meet the living tree, or find the right density or variety of wood that is safe to handle or put in our mouths.

To identify the ‘right’ plant we have to look closely at patterns – on the leaves, growth forms of the plants, shapes and numbers of buds or flowers, not only of the plant we seek, but of the others too. Each one is alive, is living in ‘it’s home’ and deserves respect. Each one has it’s individual smell, character and associations (insects, soil requirements, shade preferences etc) we can observe.

All of this builds a relationship to the place. And can also lead to a deeper understanding of sustainability and effects of resource use (that we seldom see when our goods are produced elsewhere in the world).

As we make a simple instrument there is also the skill and technique required to make it. A relationship develops with the material, the feel of the wood, it’s grain.

When it is made there is a journey of discovery for the ways to play it, to let it have a voice.

Thinking of the didgeridoo for a moment, I often  wonder if I am playing it, or is it playing me!?

And how I play and discover depends on how I am feeling in that place, in that moment…

When we join in music making with others, maybe through listening to and joining in with a pulse, what each individual brings is unique, a vibrational pattern of where they are at. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

This is all part of the story, the storing in the brain and body, of connection…with the object or instrument, the music, the place, our emotions and the people as we play.

It is bigger than self.

Through making simple music in groups  there can be belonging, creation, nowness, oneness, something moving through us all.

Those are some of the things I love about leading musical activities in forest school, and other settings. If you would like to know more about how I have seen music change the vibe of a place click here to read another blog post.

Do come along on one of my training events if you are inspired to do so. For more info you can visit either www.naturalmusicians.co.uk or www.natureconnection.co.uk

If you would like to try a free activity from the online Natural Musicians facilitation training course… click here: https://www.natureconnection.co.uk/natural-musicians-intro

To finish here are some of the attributes and benefits of Natural Musicians activities:

• Develops personal & social skills including leadership
• Helps give a sense of belonging, and moments of nowness, and oneness
• Increase coordination, collaboration and counting skills
• Encourage listening and attention to detail
• Develop botanical identification skills & ecological awareness by stealth
• Nurture creative thinking & interpretation and composition skills
• Involve people working alone, in small groups and all together
• Encourages self expression, communication, performance skills & teamwork
• there is no right or wrong…it’s a creative process
• Includes curriculum elements of pulse, describing sounds, soundscapes & rhythmic patterns
• Can be done outdoors, indoors, in all weathers
• Are five minute energisers to day long programmes
• Wholistic addition to a teachers tool kit for making everyday lessons fun, exciting and connected to nature
• Enables more staff and children to make more use of percussion and tuned instruments
• Can lead to performances and a new trend in play within the school grounds
• An hour of nature connection activities can lead to 20% improved memory performance and attention span
• Are great for both art & science weeks
• Perfect for teambuilding and generating a sense of place…
• Oh… and did I say? Might help people feel they are more musical and alive than they realised!

A Stormy Autumn and visit to Ireland.

So I had a free day in Ireland to contemplate some of the big stories going on in my personal life that were coming to the surface and bringing with them strong emotions. I was also enjoying listening to an Audio book I was finding extreemly useful ( Getting to Yes with yourself by William Ury http://www.williamury.com/books/getting-to-yes-with-yourself/). Storm Brian was not as bad as expected and I was safe to go outside, travel to Spittal on the coast near Galway and then back east to Wicklow later in the day. In the hills behind Spittal, the granite was scoured by ancient Glaciers. Again, I found myself in a place of exposed bedrock. Raw. Old boulders littered and dumped. New windmills.

As the rain clouds of Brian cleared I sat in the sun, thoroughly enjoying the warmth of its intermittent rays, and asked for help to make decisions based on inner important values, to help happiness return while not necessarily being attached on particular outcomes, because on some level my happy, playful otter or dolphin was dying under the weight of some of the things going on in my world.

I found it striking that when I returned to Devon, the seas were red and grey misty like an image of a dolphin slaughter somewhere in N Europe I had seen in the news while waiting at the airport. While spending time in the woods and talking with a dear friend by a big old ash tree I realised that a current painful dilemma was actually a mirror of painful childhood traumas which revolved around decisions, people and home, and that this was probably a big reason for the lack of joy at some levels of my life.

I knew I had to go to seek the wisdom, insight and process skills of a therapist and work on myself before making any more big decisions in my personal life. I realised this would probably also help me with my ability to work with disputes and conflict in my working life as a forest school leader and outdoor educator. The following day there was great warmth in the sun and that gave me hope in my heart, that I too could go inwards, like the spirit of the land and arise, healed or re-integrated and hopefully more conscious, in due course. The therapist messaged to say she had space and we could start next week…

The cycles of the seasons mean that now, with Samhain, the spirit of the land is returning to rest underground and the old year is coming to a close…. and thus in some ways the new cycle of the year beginning in readiness for the spirit of the land returning at Imbolc. It’s a great time to let go of the year, be grateful for all that happened this year, for the ancestors to be acknowledged too, and maybe seek the wisdom of elders in the long winter nights, dive into the stories and shadows of our past and re-emerge, or evolve with greater understanding and wisdom ourselves, part of the cycles of the seasons.

A Lesson in Language

Imagine you were sitting under a tree, with the trunk to your back. Soft shade around you. There is a stream in front of you, and you notice orange flowers and the long green curves of leaves.

There is a puff of a light breeze and you can see foliage moving around you, the bright orange flower nodding and waving gently. As you shift your awareness into a soft gaze you can see more of the whole picture, the movement of the air as it touches the plants and then feel it on your skin and entering your nostrils. You sense you are part of the landscape, the world around you sustains you. You allow the thoughts to come and go, like the puffs of wind. You can hear a bird sing or call from the tree above. “Check! Check!” You notice a feeling of excitement. Not wanting to disturb the bird you start turning your head and ears softy towards the sound for a moment, the bird remains hidden in the canopy, calls again and flies off. A glimpse of the undulating flight and your mind says “Aha! Woodpecker!”.

A couple of breaths in help you centre yourself and once again, senses awake, you return to the awareness of breath, the changing feelings inside and the world outside. You remember your being here, now, is enough. You can accept that nature is, and so am I. Sensations, thoughts and emotions come and go like the birds, clouds, wind. I am like a tree. I have a place in the world. I have many gifts. I am enough. Scientists could tell me that my brainwaves are beginning to drop into the more relaxed and aware Alpha state. Many emotions and events come and go and yet I can remain upright, connected and share my breath with the world…

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a very simple and effective way of training the attention to be present to the here and now. Nature is constantly in the here and now. Practicing mindfulness in nature can be very effective way to:

1. Increase general health and wellbeing
2. Reduce stress and anxiety,
3. Help with unwanted habits,
4. Develop a deep appreciative relationship with nature and self,
5. Remember the innocence and playful genius of the inquisitive and inventive child mind
6. Increase creativity and productiveness
7. Help with relationship issues,
8. As well as simply do less and use less global resources!!

Nature connection

Nature connection in its many aspects and core routines, which include simple nature based games like hide and seek and blindfold challenges, ” sit spot”naturalist activity, “forest bathing”, traditional crafts, tracking, understanding bird language, wandering, mapping, journaling and even photography…. all these activities call us to our senses, to be present, to observe, to awareness.

Games in Nature

Blindfold games and other sensory awareness games help children engage all of their senses so when they are asked to sit in stillness they can!

Wandering

A sufi proverb is “If in doubt, go for a walk”. The simple process of going of a walk in nature can help the mind flow through it’s circular, stressful or depressive thoughts, to drop into a rhythm and allow new thoughts to arrive. Nature can help us be called to attention to the present, and for the whole of our beings to shift or a view bring a new perspective.

Art in Nature

Doing temporary art in nature is another fantastic way to bring mindfulness and awareness into a simple activity…flow states can be reached simply and quickly. A flow state is a kind of moving mindfulness meditation where the brain settles into a different  and with trained mentoring and artful questioning many layers of meaning and can be discovered and light shed on the less illuminated parts of the mind.

Hanging out

Amazingly, in my work in schools I have noticed how a simple hammock can bring a great sense of peace and alter the brain fun actioning of autistic spectrum children. Hammock therapy! Hammocks are also a great place to relax and meditate and gaze at the forest. Research in Japan has shown that ten minutes of being in a forest brings significant reduction in cortisol levels in the blood. I imagine ten minutes in a hammock in lovely trees may work in the same way!

Stillness in your field

Mindfulness in Nature can thus bring many benefits to individuals and groups… though fun and centering practices that are simple and have been part of the human evolutionary story for thousands of years. Mindfulness can help us away from the frantic and stressful pace of life return to the source of our existence, and having found a way to become centred and relaxed at any time, you can literally stand out in your field! With thanks to our breath, the trees and all of creation.

At last!

My new resource is available! There is a free month ‘appetiser’ course here

Or there is the paid year course here With a special introductory offer 20% off!

What is is?

It’s a drip fed, month by month, year long storytelling training course with videos, storyboards, audio files, tips and tricks, activity ideas, curriculum links and more. Priced at less than £3 (or one posh coffee!) per week – it’s amazingly good value.

You can pay Yearly or Monthly – both buttons are at the bottom of the page!

This course gives you the tools and the confidence to tell a great story that engages all the listeners & then gives you activities and ideas to transform your outdoor learning delivery.

“Do you know what? This is INSPIRATIONAL! I love the story, the background information, the ideas. It’s a fabulous resource. It’s also very supportive recognizing that it’s not always easy to tell a story.” Sara Collins

Get 20% off with this code valid until the 25th May! 2week20 Click the image below to visit the course website.

WHAT IS OUTDOOR CLASSROOM DAY?

Outdoor Classroom Day is a day to celebrate and inspire outdoor learning and play. On Thursday 18 May 2017, thousands of schools around the world will take lessons outside and prioritise playtime.

Why? Outdoor learning improves children’s health, engages them with learning and leads to a greater connection with nature. Play not only teaches critical life skills such as resilience, teamwork and creativity, but is central to children’s enjoyment of childhood.

It’s easy to get involved and there is something everyone can do!

If you’re a teacher and new to outdoor learning, why not use Outdoor Classroom Day to try it out? Or, if you’re an outdoor learning pro, use the day to celebrate what you’re doing already and inspire other teachers around the world to join in.

If you’re a parent, talk to your child’s school about the importance of outdoor learning and play. Ask them how they will get involved and offer to help out on the day if they need a bit of extra support.

If you work for an organisation that cares about children, nature, education or the environment, speak to us about how you can get involved. Are you an NGO that could lead the campaign in your country? We’d love to hear from you.

There are lots of resources, including advice, guidance and lesson plans, to help get you started. Sign up below to take part and help us build a movement that gets children outdoors to learn and play every day!

And remember, If you haven’t joined already there is a free storytelling for outdoor learning course I have created here:

Book Now get £20 off the day course prices! or all three for £90

HI,, just wanting to let you know I am running three courses in May at the lovely Bulstone Springs Farm, nr Sidmouth, East Devon.

19th Wild-food forage and cook up on the 19th May 6-9pm £30 More info here ( http://www.wholeland.org.uk/foraging-course/)

20th Wildfire! Learn fire by friction using the bow drill and the hand-drill 10-4pm £65 now £45 More info here (http://www.wholeland.org.uk/firebyfriction/)

21st Understanding Bird language course 9.30-4.00pm £65 now £45 More info here (http://www.wholeland.org.uk/birdlanguagecourse/)

Watch the video here:

Bird Language at Bulstone Springs from chris holland on Vimeo.

Come on all three for £130 Hang out round the fire into the night… wake up early for the amazing dawn chorus!

You can camp over at the farm for £5 a night…it’s a great place for hammocks too

And just in case you didn’t know I am offering a FREE STORYTELLING for outdoor learning course – click the picture to join up!

Today is almost vernal equinox…time for World Storytelling Day

This year I am launching a storytelling for outdoor learning course in May, but for today…

Here is one I prepared earlier!

grandpa and the two lions from chris holland on Vimeo.

I have also created a free storytelling for outdoor learning course… and there is another free story there!  Follow this link: 

http://storytellingforoutdoorlearning.com/?blogpost